Recent years have seen a flourishing of aquaculture (culture of saltwater fish and freshwater fish) with the attendant outbreaks of various fish diseases. Some fish species are very expensive, and the aquarist would suffer financially if the fish were to fall victim to a disease. Currently, the prevention and treatment of fish diseases, such as pseudotuberculosis, frequently employs antibacterial agents, such as ampicillin, oxolinic acid, and the like. However, the widespread usage of these antibacterial/antibiotic/antifungal agents has resulted in bacteria that are resistant to these antibacterial agents.
There exists, therefore, a need for the development of new agents for the prevention and therapy of fish diseases, which are not based on antibiotics or other conventional drugs, and are active against such resistant microorganisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,612 (Worley et al.), incorporated herein by reference, describes a class of relatively water-insoluble halogenated imidazolidinones. The compound 1-Chloro-2,2,5,5-tetramethylimidazolidin-4-one (MC) is one such halogenated imidazolidinone described by Worley et al. that stably binds chlorine and/or bromine to tetramethylimidazolidin-4-one. MC is from a class of compounds known as heterocyclic N-halamines. Other well known heterocyclic N-halamines include oxazolidinones and piperidines.
Because of the above described problems in the prior art, there is a widely felt need for new products to treat diseases of an aquatic species.